Morocco - the exotic within easy reach
Thanks to direct flights from Poland to the African kingdom, within a few hours you can find yourself on another continent, in another climate and in a different, and friendly, culture.
Some time ago Royal Air Maroc tried to launch a direct service between Warsaw and Casablanca. That was in the summer of 2010, but the route was not a success and was soon suspended. Casablanca is a poor choice for tourists; only a few, lured by the cult film of the same name, come here to sightsee. Most people know that the film was shot in a studio and that the city is an administrative centre rather than a tourist attraction. Today we can fly from Kraków, Katowice, Wrocław and Warsaw to Agadir and Marrakesh. The first is the place for blissful lazing on the beach with only a taste of the country's exotic side; the second is a fascinating destination for those who want to dig deeper.
I have been to Morocco 3 times, and I will certainly go back again.
By ferry from Andalusia to Ceuta and Tangier
Besides flying, you can also reach Morocco by ferry. This is an interesting option for anyone who happens to be holidaying in the south of Spain, in Andalusia. One-day ferry excursions to northern Morocco are available from Tarifa or Algeciras, for example. After crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, the “Balearia” ferry docks in Ceuta.
This is already Africa, yet still Spain, as Ceuta is one of the two enclaves belonging to that European country. Next comes a loop of about 150 kilometres with an organised group, taking in some of the countryside and two interesting cities: Tetouan and Tangier.
You can see colourful, atmospheric Arab souks, where it is worth haggling for an unusual souvenir. One such souvenir might be a clay pot used to cook the popular tagine.
The tour takes you to a traditional pharmacy and to a carpet seller. Tangier, which has long had a reputation as a city of spies and a mecca for artists, is also well worth exploring. Interestingly, the whole excursion costs less than a return ferry ticket.
But the most interesting part lies further on: Marrakesh, the Atlas Mountains, Ouarzazate, the kasbahs and the Sahara.
Marrakesh - Jemaa el-Fnaa square and the tanneries
Before flying to Morocco I put together a loop that I warmly recommend as a ready-made itinerary to follow. My first stop was Marrakesh, with its famous market square, Jemaa el-Fnaa. It is hard to find another place quite like it.
Watch on YouTubeMarrakesh's greatest attraction has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2001, together with the city's entire historic centre. The square's intangible heritage was judged to be far more valuable than its physical fabric.
Every evening the square hosts a huge market with food stalls. All across it gather jugglers, acrobats, fortune-tellers, drummers, snake charmers, self-proclaimed healers and dentists.
Touts for the open-air restaurants seem to speak every language in the world as they urge you to try the dishes being prepared. The stalls are piled high with oranges, dates, dried apricots, figs and spices.
After dark, smoke hangs over the whole square, and lit up by the street lamps it gives the place an air of mystery.
The square is best experienced on foot, and when tiredness catches up with you, you can sit on the terrace of one of the cafés around the market and, sipping sweet mint tea, watch the bustle from above. Beyond the centre, it is worth visiting the Bahia Palace, the Ben Youssef Madrasa and the Almoravid Koubba, and touring the tanneries. The tanneries are huge concrete vats in which animal hides are treated.
The sight of animal skins at various stages of processing, lying in a grey liquid, and of men hauling heavy, dripping, hairy hides stays with you for a long time. Visitors are handed a sprig of mint, because the all-pervading stench is unbearable.
Ouarzazate, film studios and the Road of the Kasbahs
From Marrakesh I took a regular bus to Ouarzazate, a town on the southern side of the Atlas Mountains. The bus laboured its way up the mountains, only to edge carefully back down again.
The first huge complexes on the outskirts are the three film studios the town is famous for. Atlas Studios, opened in 1983, welcomes visitors. You can admire sets that have stood in for ancient Egypt, Tibet and ancient Rome on screen. Ouarzazate is the place to hire a car to explore the kasbahs and tick off the Sahara. Kasbahs are dwellings straight out of a fairy tale.
They look like fortresses, with tightly packed buildings often clinging to hillsides, perched on top of them or set on a riverbank that provides natural protection.
They are built of perishable clay and every year they have to be partly rebuilt. The main road from Ouarzazate to Errachidia is known as the Road of the Kasbahs (Route des Kasbahs) and along it you will see several fine examples of this architecture. The most famous kasbah of all is Ait Ben Haddou in the Ounila Valley, 30 km from Ouarzazate.
Ait Ben Haddou and the art of haggling
It is one of the oldest settlements of its kind (11th century). Thanks to its picturesque setting, it has been immortalised in many films, such as Indiana Jones, Cleopatra, Jesus of Nazareth and Gladiator. These are just some of the films that feature it: souvenir sellers proudly show a list of 22 productions in which Ait Ben Haddou has “starred”. If you stop on the rise in front of the village, you will certainly get the chance, for a small fee, to have your photo taken with a fearsome desert snake around your neck. That is also where self-appointed guides will pounce on you. There are two ways of negotiating with them. Until recently I would always try, with ruthless consistency, to beat the price down as far as possible. Whatever it was objectively, to me it was always too high. You have to make your disapproval very clear with body language, a grimace and a feigned walk-away. Hold back on giving your counter-offer, because the moment you do, you define the level that is acceptable to you, and the other side knows it can ask for more. You will usually meet in the middle. Remember that once the price has been agreed, there is no going back on it: you cannot reopen the negotiations after the service. Unless, of course, the service fell glaringly short of expectations. Trying to renegotiate an agreed price is deeply dishonourable. Unfortunately, our fellow Poles still sometimes do it. But on the whole bargaining is a Polish strength: we do it well, pay little and earn the respect of local traders.
But wait, what is the second approach? Here I am reminded of a story from Zanzibar that I would rather forget, yet it keeps coming back to me. I haggled so fiercely, using every trick in the book, that the price I got for a few “tinga-tinga” paintings was ridiculously low. A deal has to satisfy both sides, and this time it did not. The painting seller had sadness written all over his face. Afterwards, in my mind's eye, I saw his poor family in their poor hut, his several children, a meagre meal, worn-out school things and so on. I think it is sometimes worth easing off on hard bargaining. These people are not charlatans or some kind of mafia. Often they are simply poor, and tourists are their only source of income.
The Dades and Todra gorges, the Sahara and Zagora
Back to Morocco. Heading east towards Errachidia, you have the chance to explore two stunning valleys, reached by turnings on the northern side of the road. The Dades and Todra gorges let you leave the main route, squeeze in among high mountains and find somewhere to hike.
It is possible to close the loop and drive from one gorge to the other, but you need a good off-road vehicle for that, because the tarmac ends and a rough gravel track begins, passing mountains that reach almost 2,800 metres above sea level.
In Errachidia you need to find an agency to organise a trip into the Sahara for you. We tend to picture the desert as an endless expanse of sand and huge dunes, but you rarely find one like that; most deserts are stones and boulders scattered across flat wasteland. The area around Merzouga, close to the Algerian border, however, is exactly what we imagine a desert to be.
Your best bet is a package that includes a camel trek, a Bedouin dinner, a night in a tent in the desert and watching the sunrise from the top of a dune. It is truly worth it!
After the desert expedition we turn back towards Ouarzazate. We take the southern road, which starts in Rissani and ends in Agdz. At the junction, instead of turning right towards the town, you need to turn left towards Zagora. Zagora is famous for being the place where… the world ends. This is where “white” Africa ends, where we symbolically reach the edge of the civilisation we know. Beyond Zagora there is nothing but a sea of sand, and beyond that “black” Africa. The magic of the place is a little like standing on the rocky coast of Portugal and gazing out over the ocean, hoping to make out the skyscrapers of New York. Here, too, you will not catch sight of Timbuktu in neighbouring Mali. For centuries Zagora and Timbuktu were centres of busy trade between black Africa and the Berber, Islamic north of the continent, and through it with Europe as well. Be sure to see the telling signpost in Zagora pointing the way south… “Timbuktu - 52 days”.
P.S. I returned to Morocco in the summer of 2019. I described my impressions in a separate post, which you will find here: "The most interesting places in Morocco in 10 days"
